We're losing teachers---for good

My district has lost over 40 teachers. They decided to take early retirement rather than risk teaching in a "live" classroom. They're now drawing pensions, for the most part, and I don't think we'll ever get them back.

I was offered the same deal last month. I decided to keep teaching, and I said I didn't mind teaching "live" as long as everybody was taking the proper precautions. So far, everyone has. However, there has been some noise about "encouraging" teachers over 60--a category to which I belong--to retire, as they are at higher risk of sickness and death due to covid. We have the option of teaching online only, but our hours--and pay--would be cut in half if we took that option. Right now, I'm working 4 1/2 days a week; two of them are "live" teaching.

We already had a mini-crisis a couple of years ago when the district said they were increasing class sizes from 35 to 45 because of staffing shortages. We just aren't getting the new, younger teachers to replace the older ones who retire. This process has drastically accelerated during the pandemic.

The fact that there's no one available to replace me has informed my decision to stay. But we're in big trouble. The idea has been floated to relax teacher licensure requirements to allow prospective teachers to become credentialed on the job. I don't know where that's going right now.

And my understanding is that Oregon is doing better than most states in this regard! This is yet another aspect of daily life that the pandemic+Trump has screwed royally.

I'm guessing teachers won't be the only lost professions.I imaging doctors and nurses are getting pretty stressed out right about now thanks to a virus that has gone on a lot longer than it should have.

I had a fulltime Uber driver take me to the airport back in June.  He used to be a teacher but said Uber pays better than teachers in Indiana.     He can tap into his wife's insurance so he's covered but his income comes from a non-skilled job instead of the one he went to college for.    

NOthing to do with Covid but just an interesting story of how some states dont value teachers.

Business loves to replace their older, higher salaried employees with younger ones at the low end of the pay scale.

I understand the desperation felt by teachers during this awful time.  Not only more kids per teacher, but a deadly virus out there.  I guarantee you that nurses are feeling the same way.  Not just worried about catching the virus, but that administrators' solutions to staffing shortages are always by telling us to 'pack 10 lbs of sand into a 5 lb bag'.  Work longer, work harder to get those 10 lbs in.   You need more help?  Sorry, not in the budget.  Nursing and teaching are the 'love of God' professions, as in we almost truly do it 'for the love of God', as Florence Nightingale set it up (and I'm sure a similar type for teaching), certainly not for the money.  All those fluffy platitudes they put out at Nurses Week, I'm sure the same for teachers, rah rah our great teachers. 

Well, thankfully I did like my job a lot.  It is what I wanted to do, and it worked out.  But I never did get all that sand in the bag, just went home and cried some nights.  And dreaded the ringing of the phone at night.  "Candy, two of your nurses called in for tomorrow."  Oh, God, help us.  (and mostly the same ones, which royally pissed off the loyal ones always).  And longer hours for all of us.

Glad you are hanging in there for the kids.  Very godly.

Your first paragraph is dead on balls accurate for municpal and state jobs.    Like teachers.

Both my parents were public school teachers in NY.   My father literally won the "Teacher of the year" award in Erie COunty (Buffalo NY area) and was the inspiration for many of his students to pursue a carrer in teaching.   Despite his accolades the school superindendant begged him to quit each of the last 8 years of his carrer.    He was making too much money.    His union membership allowed him to stay in place much to his boss's dismay ....teachers in non-unionized states met a different fate.

Unike the Federal government states and cities cant print money.  They have strict budgets and their revenues rise and fall with the economy.     You want to believe decisions are made about people based upon their abilities but thats not how it works.      

Unions come with their own set of problems but they serve as a valid protection in cases like my father's

Thanks, Candy. I'm wondering if, in my job environment and elsewhere, older employees are being ushered out the back door because we're greater insurance risks. If we get covid, we're that much more likely to be hospitalized, take longer to recover, need more medications, etc. etc.

There ARE workarounds to our current situation. It's just a matter of having the political will to implement them. I mentioned alternative teacher licensure programs--Oregon currently has the strictest teacher licensure qualifications in the country, which I'm sure makes for great teachers but also constricts the pipeline of new incoming teachers. A lot of the routine functions that teachers perform could be outsourced--even to parents or volunteers. A ridiculous proportion of my days is taken up with busywork, which quite frankly, anyone could do. I do a lot of clerical work, which takes away from things like lesson prep.

Everyone just wants things to return to normal. Unfortunately, we can't do that until the pandemic is under control, and we can't do that until the White House and the Senate are cleaned of Republican infection.

Locally, as this is Trump Land, we have a LOT of people screaming about the restrictions that are in place, and parents wanting everything to proceed as if there was no such thing as the coronavirus--full classrooms, full lunchrooms, football and basketball games, etc. etc. That complicates everything the district is trying to do to keep everyone safe.

So do we have you to partialy blame for the shitty school district CCSD?

CCSD won't get new teachers as long as the system is so screwed up, why would a new teacher want to teach in this environment?

I agree that the parents need to step up also and give two shits about their crotch crickets education also but the teacher needs to be competent too and in some cases not relying on their tenure to keep a job until they retire.

I live and work in Oregon, so no, I don't have anything to do with what happens in CCSD.

CCSD does not award "tenure," as most universities do. They are, in fact, suffering from a teacher shortage, and several years ago, instituted an alternative licensure program to help alleviate it. The trouble is, the local population keeps expanding, so they need to add hundreds of teachers every year just to maintain their present situation. Plus, CCSD is the largest school district in the nation. It's unwieldy and slow to react to problems and needs.

As to your rhetorical question of why would a teacher love to teach there, well, the answer is and always has been because they love to teach. God forbid we should pay teachers like the vital professionals they are.

I would imagine that you are glad you have nothing to do with it either.

I have no problem paying teachers, but just throwing money at them isn't the answer either.

When I lived in the Chicago area I lived in district 211. One of the highest paid disticts in the country. They only hired teachers with Masters Degrees. They had a 99.xx% graduation rate and most students went on to higher education. Yes we were taxed out the ass for it but we got results.

It's a three fold equation.

Parents cared + Teachers cared + Students cared = success

Just went back and checked D-211 isn't even in the top 50 in the US now for salary. Must have been some retirements. But I did notice CCSD was 22nd in the US.

Paying teachers what they deserve isn't "throwing money at the problem." It's basic justice and equity. We have a very strange hierarchy in this country. We revere and pay big bucks to scumbag lawyers and politicians but treat teachers like glorified day care workers.

In how many professions are people expected to pay for their own office supplies? Teachers, however, routinely pay for classroom materials out of their own pockets. I routinely spend $300 a month for stuff the district SHOULD be supplying.

Teacher shortages are directly caused by poor teacher pay. Consider--you need a college degree PLUS four to six years of postgraduate work in order to get a teaching license. Then, you get paid about as well as a Starbucks barista--while staggering under the burden of all that student debt you acquired during your long journey through the halls of academe. It's a wonder anyone at all wants to teach.